Sexual abuse of young an 'appalling sin', says Pope

BY SIMON CALDWELL
THE POPE this week told America's cardinals the sexual abuse of children was "an appalling sin in the eyes of God".
His comments came at the start of a two-day meeting in Rome to discuss a wave of sexual abuse accusations which since January has prompted the resignations or suspensions of 60 priests and a bishop in 17 American dioceses.
"You have come to the house of the successor of Peter, whose task it is to confirm his brother bishops in faith and love and to unite them around Christ in the service of God's people," he said. 'The door of this house is always open to you. All the more when your communities are in distress.
"Like you, I, too, have been deeply grieved by the fact that priests and religious, whose vocation it is to help people live holy lives in the sight of God, have themselves caused such suffering and scandal to the young.
"Because of the great harm done by some priests and religious, the Church herself is viewed with distrust, and many are offended at the way in which the Church's leaders are perceived to have acted in this matter. The abuse which has caused this crisis is by every standard wrong and rightly considered a crime by society — it is also an appalling sin in the eyes of God. To the victims and their families, wherever they may be, I express my profound sense of solidarity and concern."
He said abuse of the young was a grave symptom of a crisis of "sexual morality" affecting society as a whole. "The Church will help society to understand and deal with the crisis in its midst", he said.
"It must be absolutely clear to the Catholic faithful, and to the wider community, that bishops and superiors are concerned, above all else, with the spiritual good of souls. People need to know that there is no place in the priesthood and religious life for those who would harm the young.
"They must know that bishops and priests are totally committed to the fullness of Catholic truth on matters of sexual morality, a truth as essen
tial to the renewal of the priesthood and the episcopate as it is to the renewal of marriage and family life.
"We must be confident that this time of trial will bring a purification of the entire Catholic community, a purification that is urgently needed if the Church is to preach more effectively the Gospel of Jesus Christ in all its liberating force.
"Now you must ensure that where sin increased, grace will all the more abound. So much pain, so much sorrow must lead to a holier priesthood, a holier episcopate, and a holier Church."
The meeting was under way as The Catholic Herald went to press. It was attended by 13 US cardinals, two of whom, Edward Egan of New York and Bernard Law of Boston, are under pressure to resign.
The Vatican was represented by an archbishop and six cardinals, including Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Earlier, Cardinal Francis Stafford, a Vatican-based US cardinal, had blamed homosexual activity for the majority of sex abuse complaints, and said that the screening of gays from seminaries was high on the agenda.
"I think it's a misnomer, really, to call [the problem] child abuse. I think it's more of an acting out homosexually," said Cardinal Stafford, adding that the paedophilia cases were "a significant minority".
He said: "To focus on those is, I think, to blur the reality."